A Phone Call
by NearlyHeadlessNic
Summary: The TARDIS console was ringing, how was Martha not to pick it up and answer. Although the voice at the end was not who she ever expected.
1. Chapter 1

The Doctor was missing.

Martha had been looking for him for the last half hour. She had become very frustrated with the massive interior of the TARDIS. It had too many corridors that looked the same. The same metal grating that covered the floors and many tracks of lit up wires underneath and the same deep blue walls and silver metallic railings. Martha got tired of it after a while.

She found herself back in the control room, and sat on the battered dirty cream seats facing part of the central console. There was still no sign of the Doctor.

They had been circling a burnt supernova for a few hours. The Doctor said it was to stock up on energy or fuel or Time Vortex stuff for the TARDIS. Martha sort of phased out when the Doctor talked technical to her, she never liked physics and engineering when at college, she always enjoyed and preferred human biology and anatomy, hence why she became a doctor.

Martha had been thinking about her travels with the Doctor, and even the man himself. As first, it seemed that the only reason the Doctor asked Martha on the TARDIS was because she saved his life, and it was a way of saying thank you. Giving her a lift through space and time, for one trip and one trip only. He was still hung up on his Rose.

She must have been someone amazing, the Doctor's equal. Martha knew that even though she's gone now, the Doctor loved her, and she loved him back. That they were ripped apart by an alien threat. Something that wasn't meant to happen.

They were meant to be together forever, and there was nothing to stop the Doctor extremely missing her.

Martha sighed and made a moody expression. She thought she had made it obvious enough that she thought his slim tight blue trousers was cute, but alas, he didn't realise. It was like, ever since Rose departed from the TARDIS he was cut off from all humanity. It was taken away from him. And since the Daleks in Manhattan, he seemed more distant then ever.

She stood, deciding to go and look again for the Doctor when the most peculiar thing happened.

The control console was ringing.

Martha furrowed her eyebrows and took a step closer to the great TARDIS controls. It was ringing, like an old telephone from the nineteen fifties, those ones where you had to turn the entire dial to dial one number.

"Doctor?" She called out, hoping for some kind of reply. But her hope was unprecedented when there was no answer from the Doctor.

She walked up to the console and search for the source of the ringing. Deep down under many of the switches and wires, there was a phone. And it was ringing.

"Since when did the TARDIS have a phone?" She asked herself, as it kept on ringing her ears getting used to the high-pitched sound. She let her fingers trace the spine on the receiver. Wondering what to do. The ringing gradually getting on her nerves.

She picked it up and paused for a second. Thinking about the many possibilities of a ringing phone within the TARDIS that is circling a dead star. She raised it to her ear.

"Hello?" She said, her eyes confused and her mind blank about what might happen next.

"Hello?" A voice replied. It was a woman's voice, a Londoner too.

Martha didn't know how to reply, what was she going to say. But she didn't have to, for the voice spoke first.

"Hello?" It repeated down the line, "Who is this?"

"My name is Martha," Martha said back, "Who are you? How are you calling here?"

The was a pause, probably because the voice on the other side was thinking, "Can you get the Doctor on the phone please?" The woman asked, "Tell him it's urgent."

Martha glanced at the door, hoping the tall Time Lord would poke his head through just then, "Err…sure. Whom may I say is calling?" Martha inquired, feeling stupidity run through her veins. She had to answer the phone like that when she was at her first job, earning money for university.

"Tell him…" The voice trailed off and then breathed, "Tell him it's Rose."

* * *

Rose drummed her fingers on her Torchwood desk, bored. She was waiting for an email from a man called Clive, who claims to have spotted a UFO and came up with a conspiracy theory about the whereabouts of aliens. Rose sighed, the public knowledge of aliens an life on other planets had so many holes in it you can strain tea through it, so this email would probably turn out to be a load of crap anyway.

She flicked through her diary and saw the date was 10th July. Rose felt sadness plunge in her stomach.

It had been a year. One whole year since they said goodbye. And she didn't even realise.

She felt her eyes watering as she thought back to that day. Bad Wolf Bay, who'd have thought it. The words Bad Wolf had brought them together again, bought them together for the last time.

She told him how she felt, how'd she been feeling for a long time. She first realised she loved the Doctor when they went back to 1987 and met Pete Tyler, her father. She messed up time, allowed Reapers to come through from another world and begin to digest their own. But he still worked out a way for the timeline to be fixed and her father to stay alive, so she would grow up with the man she always admired but never knew. She realised that the Doctor cared for her, wanted her to be happy, even if it meant she might decide to go home afterwards. He gave his life to stop the Reaper from devouring them all too. He was then gone and so Pete had to give his life to fix the mistake she made in time and space.

She grew to love him even more, which was odd for her, because she didn't really find him that attractive, he was older looking and had a wonky nose. But then those smiles, those words of wisdom, and the way their hands locked in times of trouble.

He regenerated and Rose saw the true power of the Time Lord. He changed his face. He was younger, more energetic. Less moody also. She couldn't help but want to never leave him, she would stay in the TARDIS forever, for as long as her legs would allow.

At Bad Wolf Bay, she told him she loved him, in the last two minutes that they could ever spend together. But the time ran out. Just as he was about to reply.

Rose reached for a chain around her neck and fiddled with a silver key that hung from the end. It had become a habit of hers. Whilst in thought, she would fiddle with the TARDIS key. Wondering what her life would be like if she just kept hanging on to that lever for a few more seconds.

She slid open her desk drawer and under a bunch of files on the latest alien sightings there was her phone. Her superphone that the Doctor did a bit of jiggory pokery to so it worked wherever they went. It didn't really work on the parallel world. She couldn't get a signal anywhere, except when it gave her internet access when they first came to this world. She kept it close by just in case it began to ring or something, even though that was impossible.

She turned it on, hearing the cheerful greeting tune she looked down at the wallpaper. It was of her and the Doctor, him with a quiff and her with pink sunglasses. It was when they had just landed in London, 1953. Although they thought it was New York then. When the Doctor walked through with his quiff into he control room, Rose doubled up with laughter and just had to take a picture of them both. It was a happy picture and reminded Rose of good times.

But something was different.. The phone had signal. Rose furrowed her eyebrows.

If it had signal, did that mean she could call the TARDIS. The TARDIS called her once before, when the Doctor called her after the first Slitheen incident when they crashed into Big Ben and coaxed her back into the TARDIS.

Rose had a thought, and scrolled in her call directory. It was there. The phone number of the TARDIS.

Could she call it? Make contact with the Doctor?

Ask what he was about to say on Bad Wolf Bay before he faded?

Breathing deeply to settle her nerves, she pressed the call button and raised the phone to her ear.

Someone answered.

"Hello?" A woman's voice answered. He had found someone else then. Unless he regenerated into a woman…could he do that?

"Hello?" Rose said, thinking that she was going mad. How was this possible?

There was a paused down the line as the phones were connected. Rose realised that the connection might fail at any moment, so she spoke up again.

"Hello?" She repeated down the line, "Who is this?"

"My name is Martha," The woman answered. Rose didn't think much of it, she thought Martha was an old woman's name, "Who are you? How are you calling here?"

Good question, Rose mused. How was this happening? Why weren't the worlds collapsing? "Can you get the Doctor on the phone please?" Rose asked, feeling time wasn't on her side, "Tell him it's urgent."

"Err…sure. Whom may I say is calling?" Martha inquired. Rose was taken aback from the formality. Who was this girl in the TARDIS?

"Tell him…" Rose trailed off and then breathed, collecting her nerves again, "Tell him it's Rose."


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry about the wait...you know...exam time of year...

* * *

Martha took a unexpected breath as the voice on the line revealed who she was.

"Rose?" Martha asked, completely unsure of what to do or say. Should she try and find the Doctor? Leave Rose dangling on the end of a uncertain line of communication? She was in another universe so there must be some sort of power or energy behind this.

Martha knew of Rose. The Doctor told her about their travels. But only when Martha persisted that he would, back on New Earth after the motorway incident in the year five billion. The Doctor explained about the Time War, and the Daleks. How they kept on going while he lost everything, his family, his friends and then Rose.

"Yeah, Rose," She replied, a pang of jealously sparking within her. The Doctor had found someone else. She had been saying for a long time that it was what she wanted for him. If she couldn't be with the Doctor then he shouldn't be alone. He should find someone else. But now she knew it actually happened, it just made her miss the Doctor even more, "Can you get the Doctor please? I'd like to speak to him." She asked again and it was a major understatement to what Rose actually felt.

Martha looked round at the door leading to the other rooms of the TARDIS, yet again eagerly wanting the Doctor to be there.

"He's not here." Martha said, "Sorry."

Rose frowned on the other end of the line, "What do you mean? You are in the TARDIS right?"

"Yeah," Martha replied, leaning on the edge of the console, "I've been looking for him for the past half hour but couldn't find him."

Rose let out a chuckle, "Check the cupboard past the bins, he was usually in there when he went missing. There's lots of old space junk in there."

Martha smiled, "Really?

"Oh yeah, he used to go in there and find an old technical piece of equipment and then attach it to the TARDIS somehow." Rose explained. She felt a sense of relief, she had wanted to talk to someone about the Doctor for a long time, talk to someone who would understand. It was sort of like when she met Sarah Jane. Even for the short space of time they spent together fighting the Krillotanes, she felt that sort of connection. They had both spent time with the Doctor, and understand the obscure world, in the TARDIS behind those blue doors, was like.

"Really?" Martha replied, smiling. She began to twiddle with the chord of the telephone.

"Yeah," Rose nodded along. "So, how long have you been travelling with him?"

"Not that long, just a couple of weeks, I think." Martha answered truthfully, "Though it seems longer. You get sort of …timeless."

"Tell me about it. Once we landed back home and it was Christmas. Completely through me off." Rose remarked, "Well, the big spaceship rock overhead did too..."

Something triggered in Martha's mind, "Wait – are you talking about when most people walked up to the roof and just stood there? That Christmas?"

"That's the one. The Doctor fought in a sword fight and then saved the world with a Satsuma," Rose replied.

"Oh my god. I was one of those on the roof!" Martha revealed, remembering when she awoke and gasped as she realised she was on the top of an apartment block.

"The Doctor was the one who saved you then." Rose remarked, "Does that mean that you're around that time then? Where are you from?"

Rose was genuinely intrigued. She wondered what it was that made the Doctor offered a place on the TARDIS. She realised when he offered it to Rose that it was because he would be dead if it weren't for her. He even said thanks. But she wondered what it was about Martha that got her a place on the TARDIS.

"I'm a Londoner. Croydon originally. And I was 21 when the Christmas Invasion happened. I was born in 1984." Martha said.

"That means you are only a few years older then me." Rose commented.

Martha was quite surprised by that. From the way the Doctor spoke about Rose, he intelligence, her courage and bravery, you would have thought that she was a lot older. He talked of with a lot of energy, never letting him down, always up for fighting united against the enemy, but Martha never thought she was younger then herself.

"How is he?" Rose asked, and Martha was bemused by the sudden change in conversation. "The Doctor, how is he?"

Martha thought, how was she going to reply to that. "He's the Doctor. You know, energetic, excited by really weird things, still saving the world all the time. A bit moody and angsty at times." Martha explained to the best of her ability, unknowing of what Rose wanted her to say.

"Does he mention…" Rose took a breath and rolls her eyes at herself and her stupidity. It was now or never, this line could break at any moment. "Does he ever mention me at all?"

"Er, yeah!" Martha replied as if it was obvious, "All the bloody time!"

Rose let out a huge sigh of relief as she could feel Martha smiling at the end of the line. Rose chuckled slightly and sat back in her desk chair.

Martha continued, "I think though, when I first met him he wasn't…well…over you properly and kept referring how you would know what to do when I didn't. Like when we met Shakespeare. I thought he was on the rebound when he found me." Martha shrugged.

"But now it's all good, right?" Rose asked.

"Yeah," Martha replied, "I think now he's realised that I'm not you."

Rose felt pleased for Martha. "So where did you meet him?"

"He was a patient of mine, on the Moon." Martha grinned.

"The Moon?!" Rose exclaimed.

"Yeah, the hospital I work in got transported to the Moon because it was neutral territory for the Judoon Police force to come and arrest some old woman that sucked the Doctor's blood out." Martha explained finally happy that Rose would believe her. Some of her family didn't, especially her Dad's girlfriend Analiese.

"What? Sounds like some adventure!" Rose mused, laughing at the end of the line, "Where else has he taken you?"

"Oh, New Earth!"

"New Earth!" Rose repeated, her eyebrows rising. It sounded familier. Was he taking Martha all the places that he took Rose, "See any cat nuns there?"

"No, I was kidnapped and taken into the motorway, not that exciting really." Martha answered.

Rose smiled, "And the Doctor searched all over risking life and limb to save you?"

Martha pondered, "Something like that, yeah."

"That's the only way he knows how." Rose said, "One time we were in Rome at like 100 AD and I was turned to stone, and he stole a horse just to follow the cart I was in."

"You were turned to stone?" Martha asked, incredulously.

"Yeah," Rose replied as if it happened every day, "There's a statue of me in the British Museum."

"Bloody hell!" Martha said, her eyes widening, "That is so cool!"

"Oh, and also, he jumped on a horse through a time window to save Madam Du Pompadour, knowing that there was no way back to me and Mickey in the 51st Century." Rose added in her explanation.

Martha burst out laughing, "Blimey!"

Rose began to laugh with her on the other end of the line. It was good, she approved of this girl, the Doctor had done well for himself. She was clever and down to earth.

Once the laughter subsided, there was a gap of conversation. Martha asked the thing that was bugging her for ages.

"Rose?"

"Yeah."

"Do you love him? The Doctor, do you love him?"

Rose paused before answering. It had been a year since they said their goodbyes and the Doctor had become a memory. An era of her life that she can't go back and repeat. She had moved on, to some extent. She had her mum, her dad and Mickey, not forgetting her new baby brother, Jack. But she missed that era so much, so badly wanting a TARDIS to appear on a corner as she walked down the street. She missed him. "Yes." She said firmly, "I think I always will."

Martha smiled, she now understood. The love that the Doctor feels for Rose, as she knows that it wasn't just friendship, is requited. That's what made they're relationship different from the one Martha and the Doctor had.

Just then, the aforementioned Time Lord came through the door and Martha spun on her heels to face him, the phone still in her right hand.

"There it is, see?" The Doctor wavered some metal tubing in Martha's face, "Fuel strengtheners from the Roswell Spacecraft. I can harness the electrics within it make sure the TARDIS lands more accurately when-," He stopped, seeing Martha's currently occupied hand. "What are you using the phone for?"

Martha cringed slightly, "It was ringing, and you weren't around, so I answered it."

The Doctor furrowed his eyebrows, "But how can it be ringing? No one has this number, I don't think the TARDIS even has a number."

Martha bit her lip, and held the phone out for him to take. "You need to speak to her,"

The Doctor took the receiver, looking at Martha with a bemused expression, "Who is it?" He asked Martha.

"It's Rose."

The Doctor dropped the phone in shock. It was left dangling by its chord off the console. "But that's impossible."


	3. Chapter 3

"But that's impossible."

Martha bent down and picked up the receiver, "Apparently not." She held out the receiver for The Doctor again, "She's here, on the phone. I was just speaking to her."

The Doctor cautiously took the phone from her hand, and raised it to his ear, "Hello?"

Martha looked up at him, worriedly. What would this mean? If Rose could phone the TARDIS, would there be a way to pick her up? Just as Martha was getting settled with the life that The Doctor leads.

Rose's heart jumped as she heard his voice again, her breath quickened. "Hi,"

The Doctor was shocked, and his jaw dropped as soon as he heard her voice on the other line. He looked down at Martha again, as if for confirmation that it was happening.

Martha stifled a laugh, his face was a picture. "Told you so," She said quietly, and decided to leave them to it. She walked around the console, not keeping her eyes off the Doctor and then back through the doors. She needed to check her Myspace anyway.

The Doctor heard the swaying of the doors behind him, and knowing Martha had left, he could talk and see if this was really Rose on the other line.

"Rose?" She questioned.

"Yeah," She answered on the other side of the line.

"How is this happening?" The Doctor asked, "What are you using to call here? By all the rights of science the universe should have been ripped in half."

Rose's heart was beating fast, "My phone. The one you supered up. I don't know, it just got signal when I turned it on. I haven't done anything different."

The Doctor spun on his heels to look at the central console, "It must be the TARDIS then," He murmured and bent down to look at the monitor, "Where are we?" He asked, and placed the phone between his ear and his shoulder, using his hands to fish out his glasses. Putting them on, he screw his face up with confusion.

"Doctor…" Rose said on the other side of the line. Although incredibly happy to speak to him once more, he wasn't half annoying when he spoke technical babble.

"We are circling round a burnt supernova, which means there is more energy then usual in the atmosphere…but that can't be enough." He went on.

"Doctor," Rose repeated, a little more infuriated.

"There's something else." He said, playing with the buttons on the console.

"Doctor!" Rose almost shouted down the phone.

He stood upright immediately in shock, "Yes Rose?"

Rose, glad he got his attention, looked at her diary open at her desk, "Do you know what day it is for me?"

The Doctor was confused, "Could I take a guess?"

Rose rolled her eyes, "No, I hate guessing and any guessing games." She replied back, "Today is the tenth of July." Rose paused, "It's been a year since we said goodbye."

That stopped the Doctor. He went still and rigid. "A…a year?"

Rose nodded, "Yeah, a year."

There was a gap in the conversation.

"Happy Anniversary," Rose added, forcefully cheerfully, as an afterthought.

The Doctor had to swallow again, and he leant back on the TARDIS console, "Rose, I'm sorry."

Rose smiled, "Nah, don't be." She felt all her emotions converting to sympathy for The Doctor, "I've made a life of my own here now. I'm the boss of about sixty people here at Torchwood Tower. I have a set of loving parents, Mickey and my new little brother, Jack. What more could a average girl want."

The Doctor smiled, "Was that your idea, Jack?"

"Course." Rose replied, "And Martha is a nice girl." She commented, "I like her."

"Yeah, she's definitely something." The Doctor remarked about his latest companion.

"Doctor?" Rose inquired, and the Doctor listened up. "You know a year ago, at Bad Wolf Bay?"

"Yeah," The Doctor replied, knowing what was coming next.

Rose breathed, "You disappeared, right before you…right before -,"

The Doctor cut across her, "Right before I had a chance to say what I wanted."

His hearts were thumping hard now; he now had the chance to say what he most wanted to say.

Rose sat up in her chair, the phone pressed hard against her ear. The feeling of nervousness and anxiety overwhelming her. "And what were you going to say?"

The Doctor breathed deep, "That I love you." He finally got it out, after so many hours dwelling on the feeling; "My only regret about you and me travelling in the TARDIS together was not saying it earlier."

Rose smiled from ear to ear on the other side on the connection, "I love you too. You know that right?"

The Doctor felt a sense of relief, "I know,"

Rose jumped in, "And I wouldn't have missed the time we spent together for the world."

The Doctor let out a chuckle, "I know,"

Rose grinned, and so did The Doctor. It was if they knew and could sit there for hours upon end, smiling.

After a moment, the Doctor stood and looked at the console monitor once more. "But how are we talking? How are our phones connected?" The Doctor mused, "Is anything happening, the shaking walls? Ceilings falling down? The earth's crust cracking?"

Rose looked around, her office was quiet and still. She even peeked out the window, but just saw the busy Londoners walk past, their own problems and lives in their heads. "Nope, nothing like that."

"Right…" The Doctor replied, "So the world's aren't collapsing." He pondered over the monitor again, "Circling a supernova…circling a supernova…" He muttered, and then it dawned on him, realisation spreading across his face, "Oh that's it!"

"What?" Rose questioned, her eyes widening.

"You're phone, the date, where we are! It all makes perfect sense!" The Doctor recalled down the phone, "I don't see why I got it earlier."

"What, Doctor?" Rose asked again, "You always just say stuff that doesn't make sense!"

The Doctor sat down on his battered chair which he loved so much, "Don't you see, the phone is connected to the TARDIS, the TARDIS realised that it was a year ago in your time that we last saw each other so giving the phone signal and than picked the same star that I burnt up to say good bye, which leaves residual energy connected to your world, to circle!" The Doctor explained, "It's her, it's the TARDIS. She did this, not me or you."

"So this could happen again?" Rose asked eagerly.

The Doctor's expression changed, "Maybe not," He replied, somewhat sullenly, "It must take phenomenal energy to power this conversation. It might be every couple month months to 'recharge'," The Doctor sighed, "Even years."

Rose swallowed, "God it's like Pirates of the Caribbean, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom can only see each other once every ten years, or he'll die."

The Doctor laughed, "Trust you to bring in a bad film analogy."

"Oy!" Rose replied, "So when will be able to talk again?"

The Doctor paused, "I don't know, the TARDIS will tell us when it's time. And even then it could cut off at any-,"

The line went dead.

Rose sat bolt upright, "Doctor?" She called down the phone, "Doctor?" She repeated more frantically. She looked at the screen of the mobile. It said 'CALL ENDED'

The Doctor was not surprised that the line went. He stood up and placed the receiver back onto the console, a sullen look drawn on his face. He looked up at the central column the contained the Time Vortex and with his hand stroked it, "Thanks," He muttered.

The Doctor breathed slowly and pulled up the handbrake, allowing the TARDIS to fly around needlessly, and end up anywhere.

--END--


End file.
